Handy Safe-T-Hand initiative has mum up for award

By
NIGEL MCNAY

WATCHING her then two-year-old son take off across a supermarket car park gave North Albury’s Jo Byron the idea for a business focusing on road safety.

Mumpreneur Jo Byron has designed these “hands” that stick onto the car to help keep children Joshua Byron, 5, his sister Akaisha Byron, 4, and Jessica Hawker, 2, safe from other traffic when getting in and out of the car. Picture: PETER MERKESTEYN

WATCHING her then two-year-old son take off across a supermarket car park gave North Albury’s Jo Byron the idea for a business focusing on road safety.

She sells colourful magnets in the shape of a car that feature a large hand.

People can put these on the outside of their vehicle, encouraging children to stay close by putting their own hand on the printed hand.

The business has resulted in Mrs Byron being nominated in two categories of this year’s AusMumpreneur Awards.

Mrs Byron said her experiences as a family daycare educator, State Emergency Service volunteer, former policewoman and school crossing supervisor prepared her for her role as a road safety advocate.

What her son did that day in the car park motivated her to create a smart initiative to teach him how and why to wait safely near cars.

The awards are presented by The AusMumpreneur Network to celebrate and recognise mothers from Australia and New Zealand who achieve outstanding success in areas such as business, product development, services and innovation in businesses.

That is while balancing this with the everyday demands of life and family.

Mrs Byron said it was quite flattering to be recognised.

“Obviously there’s people out there who are extremely happy with what I’ve created and acknowledge how hard I’ve been working,” she said.

Mrs Byron said having had two children quite close together meant she had “plenty of opportunity to think up things that make life a little bit easier”.

She said she had found the more people heard about her business, often through word of mouth, the more it had improved.

“I’ve had sales all over Australia now and I’ve got interest from overseas,” she said.

“I even had an occupational therapist from Autism Spectrum Australia contact me asking if they could use it as a teaching tool in their organisation.”

Finalists will be selected by a public vote at ausmumpreneur.com until October 6.